Retro: Jet Set Radio - Dreamcast

Of course, we all know the basics, Sony came along and devoured the market with something called the Playstation 2.

But despite it’s relatively short life, the Dreamcast played host to a number of great games and one of those was Jet Set Radio.

Developed by Smilebit and published by Sega in 2000, exclusively for the Dreamcast, Jet Set Radio raised a lot of eyebrows with it revolutionary rendering technique – cel-shading. A technique of course, that is common place these days with games like Borderlands, Afro Samurai, Street Fighter IV and XIII.

The game begins with a cutscene, where a DJ going by the name of Professor K sets up the proceedings by explaining the basics of life for the city’s “rudies” – a term used to refer to the youth who roam the streets and spray their tags everywhere, as a way of self expression.

What is quite funny is that as the game loads, it reminds you that graffiti is mostly illegal. It’s a sign of the times really, when you consider there is content in some games these days, that is a lot stronger and they carry no warning what-so-ever. So, incase you weren’t aware and you are reading this, 99% of the activities in Grand Theft Auto IV are illegal.

Anyway, set sometime in the future, within the city of Tokyo-to, you start off controlling the character of Beat, a “rudie” who is setting up his own gang.

Rather neatly, the game begins with Beat proving himself to potential gang members. This not only introduces the gamer to the controls, but also introduces us to the characters. After you have successfully mastered the controls, done the tricks and impressed Gum and Tab, they join your gang and the game finally gets going.

Starting off in a Shibuya bus station, the player has to tag various parts of the area whilst being pursued by the police and their leader, Captain Onishima. Along the way, you have to perform tricks to collect spray cans – positioned in places that can only be reached if you have the skills to get to them.

Through out the game there are also various gang members to face off. You’ll find them spraying their tags over yours. Simply skate towards them, knock ‘em over and steal their spray cans.

The city plays host to several rival gangs. There are the Noise Tanks, who appear to be semi-cyborg. There is also Poison Jam, who are a bunch of brutish thugs that feel the need to wear fish costumes and finally, the Love Shockers – a bunch of love scorned girls.

Failure to collect the spray cans, will result in your inability to complete the level. Beat will run out of paint and you will not be able to tag the streets of Tokyo-to.

Tokyo-to is split up into three parts. This gives the game a nice bit of variety, with each area having a distinct look. Shibuya is a busy shopping district set in full daylight, Benten in a night time entertainment spot and Kogane is a residential area, built on water, that also plays host to a perpetual sunset.

Ultimately, Jet Set Radio has dated quite well. However, there are a few issues that do show it’s age.

Firstly, the graphics are not anywhere near the standard of today’s – but this is to be expected. Secondly, the audio does get quite repetitive, especially the music. Whilst it is a pleasure to hear such an eclectic collection of songs that range from variety of musical genres (hip-hop, funk, electronic dance music), if you find yourself stuck on a level, the music restarts with each try and after a few attempts it does begin to irritate.

One thing that did strike me, was the controls – most games these days seem to be a lot easier, with the character you are controlling locking onto its desired platform (I’m looking at you Nathan Drake).

With Jet Set Radio, there is an undeniable amount of skill needed to complete each task. Whilst this is annoying at times, it’s illustrative of how easy (and perhaps, how fluid) games have become recently.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Jet Set Radio has a nice ‘pick up and play’ quality to it, something that isn’t all too familiar these days.